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We’ve got them. High and low. Conscious and Subconscious. Manas and Buddhi. Action an Reaction. Sympathetic and Para-sympathetic. Wants and Needs.

One mind primitive. Primal. It is full of arousal and desire. It helps you flee. (From what?– We do not have bears chasing us anymore. Not even in Ithaca… <insert obvious Cornell joke here>) It is your puppy mind. Your dream mind. Your raid the fridge mind. (Yours too?! 😉 ) Your ego lives here. So does your adrenaline. Yes. And, yes!– We need this mind. We need to be able to react. But, at some point, we also need to be able to question: What are we reacting to?

The other mind is ‘wiser’. Slower. Rational. Reasoned. It knows that oatmeal is a good way to start a day. It is cautious. It is steady. It knows you. It knows what is nourishing for you. It can calm and steady that puppy. But, there is a ‘problem’ with this mind. It gets worn out sometimes. At times, this mind does not even show up. Your high mind is not like that naturally amped puppy lower mind who always wants to play. This mind needs to be strengthened. It needs training. It needs you to engage with it.

Which mind is minding you?

Don’t like your answer?

Want to nudge that higher mind along?!! Have you tried yoga yet? 😛

Below is the crux of the yoga practice (from Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras):

1.2. Yogas-chitta-vritti-nirodhah – yoga is the controlling or restraining of mental fluctuations.

1.3. Tada drastuh sva-rupe’vasathanam – then the “seer” (witness) experiences himself in his own true form,

1.4. Vritti-sarupyam-itaratra – otherwise the seer identifies with the changing nature of the mental fluctuations.